Jessica Biel attends the 70th Emmy Awards at Microsoft Theater on September 17, 2018 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Axelle/Bauer-Griffin/FilmMagic)
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What do Jessica Biel and Robert Kennedy, Jr. have in common? Well, first of all, neither of them has played Wonder Woman in a movie. Biel reportedly turned down the role in 2007, and no one seems to have offered the part to Kennedy. Secondly, both of them appeared together this past week in Sacramento, California, apparently lobbying against California Senate Bill 276, a bill aimed to address declining childhood vaccination rates in California by making the process of getting medical exemptions more stringent.
Biel is best known for starring in movies such as The Rules of Attraction (2002), The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2003), Blade: Trinity (2004), Stealth (2005), The Illusionist (2006), The A-Team (2010), and Total Recall (2012). Kennedy shared pictures of their day via his Instagram account, such as the following:
From Instagram
As you can see, he called Biel "courageous." Courageous for what exactly? He continued by saying "for a busy and productive day at the California State House." Is the California State House really that dangerous? Are there deadly spiders, pits of molten lava, vampires, or chainsaws there? Was Biel risking getting some potentially deadly diseases, such as measles?
Not according to Biel's Instagram post, which said:
This week I went to Sacramento to talk to legislators in California about a proposed bill. I am not against vaccinations — I support children getting vaccinations and I also support families having the right to make educated medical decisions for their children alongside their physicians. My concern with #SB276 is solely regarding medical exemptions. My dearest friends have a child with a medical condition that warrants an exemption from vaccinations, and should this bill pass, it would greatly affect their family’s ability to care for their child in this state. That’s why I spoke to legislators and argued against this bill. Not because I don’t believe in vaccinations, but because I believe in giving doctors and the families they treat the ability to decide what’s best for their patients and the ability to provide that treatment. I encourage everyone to read more on this issue and to learn about the intricacies of #SB276. Thank you to everyone who met with me this week to engage in this important discussion!
What is SB 276? Currently, in California, like many places around the country and world, children are required to get a set of vaccinations before entering school. These vaccinations are supposed to protect children from getting diseases such as the measles, mumps, pertussis, tetanus, and hepatitis B. This year has shown what can happen when measles vaccination rates drop below 95% in a community. We're not even halfway through 2019, and as of June 6, there have been already at least 1,022 individual cases of the measles in 28 states, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). That's the greatest number of reported cases reported in the U.S. since all of 1992. This is measles, a disease that was declared eliminated in the U.S. in 2000.
The problem is, since 2000, an increasing number of parents around the U.S. have been trying to opt their kids out of vaccinations. As Laura Eggertson explained in CMAJ, in 1998 Andrew Wakefield published a since-retracted and since-discredited study in The Lancet suggesting that the measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine was linked to autism. Despite no real scientific evidence supporting such claims, Wakefield has continued to assert this link and some celebrities like Jenny McCarthy have greatly amplified Wakefield's claims about vaccines and autism.
In order to prevent the return or surge of vaccine-preventable diseases, legislators such as State Senator Dr. Richard Pan, who is also a pediatrician, have been attempting to close the loopholes that have allowed parents to keep their kids from getting vaccinated. In 2015, California Senate Bill (SB) 277, co-authored by Pan and fellow State Seantor Ben Allen, passed the California State Senate and was signed into law by Governor Jerry Brown. This law eliminated vaccine exemptions for personal beliefs, meaning that parents could no longer just say that they didn't want their kids to get vaccinated because they didn't want to do so.
Since the passage of SB 277, a main way parents in California have been able to keep their kids from getting vaccinated has been medical exemptions. A medical exemption is when a doctor determines that a kid has real medical reasons not to get vaccinated. Real medical reasons include severe allergic reactions to vaccines or a significantly weakened immune system from taking required medications or having a real medical condition. These are scientifically legitimate reasons not to get vaccinated but tend to be relatively uncommon. It is also relatively straightforward to medically prove that you have such conditions.
State Sen. Richard Pan, D-Sacramento, left, calls on lawmakers to approve his measure to toughen the rules for vaccination exemptions Wednesday, May 22, 2019, in Sacramento, Calif. The Senate approved the bill, SB276, that gives state public health officials instead of local doctors the power to decide which children can skip their shots before attending school. (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli)
However, as Pan explained on his State Senate page, “Medical exemptions have more than tripled since the passage of SB 277. Some schools are reporting that more than 20 percent of their students have a medical exemption. It is clear that a small number of physicians are monetizing their exemption-granting authority and profiting from the sale of medical exemptions.” People profiting off selling something not backed by science? Shocking. Is that really a thing?
That's why Pan, along with State Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez, introduced SB 276 on March 15 to make the process of getting a medical exemption more stringent. The California Medical Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics, California and Vaccinate California co-sponsored the bill. If SB 276 were to pass, physicians could no longer just write patients medical exemptions for vaccination. Instead they would have to fill out a form including their name, license number, reason for requesting the exemption, and certification that they have examined the patient, and submit the form to the California Department of Public Health (CDPH). The CDPH then would determine whether the medical exemption is granted. The bill would also have the CDPH create and maintain a database of medical exemptions to check whether any physicians were cranking out such exemptions like a printing press. Moreover, it would grant the CDPH and County Health Officers the authority to revoke medical exemptions if they found something fraudulent or inconsistent with medical guidelines.
The return of measles to the U.S. has been a real and costly problem, as I have written before for Forbes. Although no reported deaths have occurred yet this year, measles can cause serious problems such as brain inflammation and kill. This year's measles outbreaks also may be a harbinger for worse things to come, should vaccination rates slip even further. Something needs to be done about the threat of vaccine preventable diseases returning and surging.
Yet, as Melody Gutierrez And Soumya Karlamangla reported for the Los Angeles Times, opponents of SB 276 have called Pan a “tyrant,” and the bill a “crime against humanity.” Yes, someone called a pediatrician trying to find ways to protect the population against measles and other vaccine-preventable disease a "tyrant." And, yes, someone didn't say that he plays Cards Against Humanity but instead claimed that Pan is committing "crimes against humanity. " As the United Nations describes, "crimes against humanity" usually refers to true atrocities such as genocide, mass murdering, and atrocities committed during European colonialism. To equate a pediatrician trying to solve a real problem to a genocidal dictator is simply outrageous. This type of language and claiming that someone is "courageous" simply for spending a day lobbying against a vaccination bill is unnecessarily inflammatory and may create an impression of oppression that simply doesn't exist.
Kennedy's own family members, Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, Joseph P. Kennedy II, and Maeve Kennedy McKean, have condemned his continuing anti-vaccination actions in an article they co-authored in Politico, writing that, "Robert F. Kennedy Jr.—Joe and Kathleen’s brother and Maeve’s uncle—is part of this campaign to attack the institutions committed to reducing the tragedy of preventable infectious diseases. He has helped to spread dangerous misinformation over social media and is complicit in sowing distrust of the science behind vaccines."
Regardless, State Senator Brian Jones still seemed quite welcoming to Kennedy in this tweet:
Welcome to #caleg, @RobertKennedyJr and @JessicaBiel! Thank you for taking the time to chat about your opposition to #SB276. #caleg #NoOnSB276 pic.twitter.com/AkkWRbPSJk
— Brian W. Jones (@SenBrianJones) June 12, 2019
It is one thing to inquire about the risks of vaccines and whether such a bill will further threaten the autonomy of physicians or create more administrative overhead. Routine vaccination certainly has its risks, just like anything in life, including throw pillows, or watching I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry. Nonetheless, the risks of vaccination are quite low and certainly much lower than the risks of not getting vaccinated or, for that matter, putting jade eggs in your vagina. And yes, SB 276 would take some decision making authority away from individual physicians. But insurance companies and hospital administrators have been progressively taking authority away from individual physicians in much, much greater and more alarming chunks for the past couple decades and adding much more administrative overhead. If you are truly worried about physician autonomy and independence, why not address these?
It is something completely different to use inflammatory words and suggest conspiracies that don't exist. Vaccination is important because there is currently no alternative to preventing and controlling disease such as the measles, pertussis, mumps, rubella, and tetanus. The viruses and other microbes causing vaccine-preventable disease would love it if more people stopped getting vaccinated. Telling people to not vaccinate without offering any viable scientifically-backed alternative is not engaging in scientific discussion and frankly not being responsible.
Time may show what Biel's true motivations and stances are. (I am reaching out to Biel's representatives to get further clarification.) Does she have real questions, and is she simply getting caught in anti-vaccination rhetoric from others? Or is she actually spreading misinformation about vaccination herself? Ultimately, the question is how similar or different is Biel really from Kennedy.
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